Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I was in the MAPS MDMA for PTSD study

psymposia.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 159 posts

Re: I was in the MAPS MDMA for PTSD study

#71

Post by WhitneyLand »

TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #14
WhitneyLand wrote: post #5

For decades, there has been a near complete effective block on medical research for certain classes of drugs. Timothy Leary and that kind of 60’s stuff chilled legitimate science. Only recently have small changes started to happen, to the point the government, the flipping FDA, has started to think Ectasy (MDMA) might be a viable treatment for some of our most horrible mental illnesses. So many people wonder when sci…

On one hand, I understand that psychedelics should be more studied than they currently are. On the other hand, I understand why they were originally banned. In a country that valued a monoculture and having a single way of life, psychedelics spurred a complete revolution with regards to social and cultural norms. It was seen as destabilizing, and a threat to the American way of life. Nowadays, our country is very dif…

Keep in mind that banning these drugs for personal consumption wasn’t nearly the intellectual crime that banning the research has been.

Substances have been banned in cultures for thousands of years. In the US - long before psychedelics came under scrutiny - opium, cocaine, and other drugs had been made illegal, but not before the 60s was actual basic research by scientists and physicians also banned.

Re: I was in the MAPS MDMA for PTSD study

#72

Post by eradicatethots »

anythingnonidin wrote: post #50
cnp wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When a patient sits with a therapist under the influence of MDMA, which typically consists of two doses (100-120mg initially, then 70mg a few hours later) spread over an 6-8 hour period. The patient is largely experiencing their own internal process, but at times the therapist is there to help guide and comfort. Before and after the session there is conventional psychotherapeutic follow-up.

The dosages used in the FDA Phase 3 research are 80mg or 120mg initial dose followed by either 40mg or 60mg 1.5-2 hrs later, respectively.

Are they doing 6months and 1year follow ups? Short term relief is not that interesting to me

Re: I was in the MAPS MDMA for PTSD study

#73

Post by tosstossy »

moretai wrote: post #61
tosstossy wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, you don't have any experience with these drugs, do you?

What if I did? Would that have validated my comments and prevented the downvoting?

You just come across as someone who has never experienced MDMA, LSD, or Psilocybin.

No downvotes from me, I can't speak to that.

Re: I was in the MAPS MDMA for PTSD study

#74

Post by anythingnonidin »

eradicatethots wrote: post #72
anythingnonidin wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dosages used in the FDA Phase 3 research are 80mg or 120mg initial dose followed by either 40mg or 60mg 1.5-2 hrs later, respectively.

Are they doing 6months and 1year follow ups? Short term relief is not that interesting to me

Yes.

See this from earlier research results http://www.mdmaptsd.org/research-category.html

> A long-term follow-up of patients who received MDMA-assisted psychotherapy revealed that overall benefits were maintained an average of 3.8 years later.

Re: I was in the MAPS MDMA for PTSD study

#75

Post by anythingnonidin »

abarrett wrote: post #62
anythingnonidin wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the comment. Can you share a screenshot on imgur.com by any chance? I can't reproduce the issue so would like to know what you're seeing so I can fix it.

Resize to around 480px width and you'll see the problem.

Ok should be fixed, I think.

Re: I was in the MAPS MDMA for PTSD study

#76

Post by WhitneyLand »

corporateslave3 wrote: post #16
TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On one hand, I understand that psychedelics should be more studied than they currently are. On the other hand, I understand why they were originally banned. In a country that valued a monoculture and having a single way of life, psychedelics spurred a complete revolution with regards to social and cultural norms. It was seen as destabilizing, and a threat to the American way of life. Nowadays, our country is very dif…

Was the threat to the traditional American way of life really the reason they were made illegal? It seems more likely that it was due to the unknown and possibly dangerous nature of the drugs. As a society we have always outlawed drugs that can drastically alter perception (aside from alcohol).

Safety played absolutely no role in these decisions. If that we’re the case, only personal consumption or distribution would be banned, not basic research itself including research that didn’t even administer the drugs to humans.

Re: I was in the MAPS MDMA for PTSD study

#77

Post by bduerst »

moretai wrote: post #61
tosstossy wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, you don't have any experience with these drugs, do you?

What if I did? Would that have validated my comments and prevented the downvoting?

It might be because there are people who have experienced otherwise and you seem to be speaking in generalizations instead of experience. This is anecdotal, but taking MDMA once, recreationally and not in a theraputic sessions, helped me with social anxiety.

The best analogy I can give is like you're playing a NES game, and it's glitching all over parts of the screen. You're still able to play, but there's interference that you just eventually learn to ignore, even though it is wearing on your experience. MDMA is like hitting the reset button and the glitches are gone. You realize there's a beauty that you've been missing this entire time, because you grew to view life through this filter.

Again, this isn't true of everyone's experience but studies are starting to show it's able to help certain people that can use it.

Re: I was in the MAPS MDMA for PTSD study

#78

Post by tosstossy »

moretai wrote: post #64
wavefunction wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You sound like you haven't tried either MDMA or mushrooms from reading your post. I can't speak for everyone but the stuff you think is 'all bullshit' seems to be pretty common experience even among people who don't know Terrence McKenna or George Harrison from lil Jeffy Sessions. And psychedelic use has been deeply ingrained in various human cultures all over the world for thousands (tens of thousands? hundreds of t…

>Taking psychedelics as part of a religious ceremony or ritual to rid oneself of suffering is part of indigenous traditions in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia/Oceania. Could you link me to some research about this? I have heard this talked about, but I haven't found anything reliable.

This may be of interest https://books.google.com/books?id=Jj8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA101#v=on...

Re: I was in the MAPS MDMA for PTSD study

#79

Post by moretai »

boldlybold wrote: post #63
moretai wrote: post #30

I feel like there has to be a good amount of people in the world who take psychedelics on a regular basis. At least more so than your average person. I'd imagine they are still broken, shattered, and lost individuals. Maybe some people have accessed some secret knowledge on their trips. But for the vast majority, I doubt that's the case. I am not saying that there is no benefit, especially for an extreme case like th…

Read some of the research on psychedelic medicine, and come back to your post. People's lives have been changed by this, long term. Adults with autism, PTSD, substance abuse, end-of-life cancer patients with terrible anxiety. It doesn't matter what the culture behind these substances is. They work for the people that need them. The results should speak for themselves.

I'll read the papers on MAPs and get back to you.

Re: I was in the MAPS MDMA for PTSD study

#80

Post by WhitneyLand »

BearGoesChirp wrote: post #67
WhitneyLand wrote: post #5

For decades, there has been a near complete effective block on medical research for certain classes of drugs. Timothy Leary and that kind of 60’s stuff chilled legitimate science. Only recently have small changes started to happen, to the point the government, the flipping FDA, has started to think Ectasy (MDMA) might be a viable treatment for some of our most horrible mental illnesses. So many people wonder when sci…

>and even work against collection of, objective data The problem is that many times the data collected is not objective at all. Statistics can be twisted by even just the definitions of words used. For example, a CDC study on rape considered forced penetration, but not being forced to penetrate, as rape. This data was then used in a report that, among other conclusions, concluded that women almost never rape men. All…

>The problem is that many times the data collected is not objective at all

I don’t think that has anything to do with it. If it were the case the demands would be for better data, not no data.

And yes, some in Congress advocate against collecting data full stop on certain issues.

I would agree it’s always been true thst data will sometimes be flawed and biased, and always will be.

The question is what do you do about it? Stop science, or improve standards in good faith?

Post reply on HN